Living In The Past
by LinnendeBlack
Summary: Hermione's time-turner breaks and she finds herself face to face with her heart's desire. Can she face the same person again 20 years into the future? What would it be like to fall for someone you truly could not have? Sirius B./Hermione G.
1. Unfamiliar Territory

Hey everyone. This is my first fanfic. I've wrote more but haven't had time to get them on here. I'll hopefully see to that soon. Here's a story that I'd had in my head for about a week before I decided to get it down on paper. Hope you like it.

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Hermione stood on the plush carpet of the Gryffindor common room. She removed the Time-Turner from around her neck and hastily stuffed it into her bag. _I'm going to be late! Bloody time-turner is so unreliable! I don't see why Dumbledore gave this back to me in the first place after destroying the rest of them, this is the worst one out of the lot. It either lands me right into the middle of the lessons and leaves the class looking dumbstruck as to how I had just materialised there, or lands me miles away from where I need to be! Such as now, when I'm supposed to be in Potions and I'm in the common room miles away! _She annoyingly pushed open the portrait and made her way into the corridor and down the stairs towards the dungeons.

A change of thought made her stop suddenly. _While I'm here,_ she thought,_ I may as well grab that book I said I'd lend to Ron so I can give it to him in the lesson while I remember. _She turned around and made her way back up the steps. Jogging quickly now, she came to the portrait of the fat lady and muttered the password, "Bogeys."

"Oh how rude! Honestly. A lovely innocent girl such as yourself, uttering words like that. No doubt your friends with those other hooligans in your year."

"Whatever. Bogeys."

"Honestly deary I don't know what you're talking about, but if you think that's how you're going to get in then you're wrong."

"What? But the password is bogeys."

"Not to my knowledge it isn't. They changed it yesterday didn't you know? I'm afraid I can do nothing until you say the right password."

"But it can't be wrong! I used it half an hour ago!"

"You couldn't have done. I haven't seen you all day. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen you before. Are you sure you're a Gryffindor?"

"Yes I'm sure. Oh whatever it doesn't matter. I'm late for class."

Hermione rushed down the stairs, quite confused by what had just happened. She'd used that password around thirty minutes ago before she went in to her dormitory to get her time-turner, now the fat lady was saying the password had been changed since yesterday.  
__

As she ran past the Great Hall, she noticed a few things had changed since she last looked there. _I must start to take more notice of things_ she thought to herself. She bumped into an erratic looking Hufflepuff with glasses and thick curly hair. "Sorry." She mumbled whilst making her way down the stone steps towards the dungeons. 

Continuing down the steps she heard the door open and students pouring out of the classrooms.I_'ve missed the lesson! I'm going to get endless detentions! Unauthorised absences! Stupid bloody unreliable time-turner! _She took it out of her bag and shook it violently, as though attempting to punish it.

A tap on her shoulder caused her to quickly stuff it in her robe pocket and turn around. _"Hello."_

It was Harry; at least she thought it was. He looked like Harry anyway, except a little taller and his hair was messier. _Growth spurts, they always happen when you least expect it. What has he done to his hair?_

"Hello Harry. I can't believe I missed the lesson! Snape is going to kill me!"

"Woah hang on a minute there are you ok? Who's Harry? And if Snivellus tries to do anything to you just tell me and I'll hex him into oblivion."

"What are you talk-" Then at that moment, she noticed his eyes were not green, nor did he have that scar on his forehead.

"My name's James, James Potter. I'm in Gryffindor in the fifth year, you look like a Gryffindor too. Are you new? I haven't seen you before. Come on I'll show you aroun-" He made to take her by the arm when she stepped back momentarily.

She hesitated for a moment, in a short state of shock. Then stepped forward again and took his arm. "Thank you." She whispered. _Oh my bloody God. Where am I?_

"So what's your name then?"

"Hermione."

"Nice name. So are you new?"

"Erm, yes. In a way."

"Oh right. What school did you go to before Hogwarts?"

"Oh er, my family used to live in Ireland but my dad had to move to London with his work, so I got transferred to Hogwarts, cause' it would be easier then, for... me to write to my family you know? Otherwise I'd have to pay those erm, owl fees." She realised this lie was getting worse. _He can't be buying this_, she thought worryingly. "But I didn't like the school much anyway, so I got transferred here."

James was looking slightly skeptical. "Oh. Well don't worry, you'll love it here. Come on I'll take you to meet my friends, they're a bit mad, well one of them is, but don't worry. He'll probably like you. He's got a thing for now what was it again? Redheads, brunettes and blondes." He chuckled. Hermione found herself doing the same.

"So just girls in general then?"

"Yeah..." James seemed to drift off slightly, and Hermione saw that he was staring at a rather attractive redhead across the hallway who was talking with her friends. Hermione didn't even need to guess who that was.

"So who are these friends of yours then?" She said, waking James up from his moment of daydreaming.

"Oh well there's Sirius, he's my best mate, off his head. He's a real rebel. Me and him are like Bonnie and Clyde, except that well, we're both guys...anyway, then there's Remus, he's a bookworm, real clever though, always helps me with my homework, or should I say, does it for me! Then there's Peter, he's a bit.. strange, but can be quite funny at times." Hermione felt a tiny flush of anger at the sound of his name.

They reached the Great Hall and Hermione made to push it open. "Wait!" James whispered, and pointed his wand to set of bookshelves. "Levicorpus!" He shouted, and suddenly a tall, handsome looking boy with shoulder-length dark brown hair was being hoisted by his ankles from behind the bookcase. "I should have known Sirius! Going to jump me from behind and steal my glasses like you did last time! It won't work twice mate." Sirius produced a smug grin.

"Ah well, can't blame me for trying. It was funny last time I did that though. I took your glasses and then you walked straight into a pillar trying to get them back off me! I was in stitches for hours after that!" He broke into an uncontrolled laugh. "So are you going to let me down or what?"

"Sure." James let Sirius down quickly, landing him in a heap on the floor. He scowled and dusted himself off and came to join the other two.

"Right well, now that's over with, perhaps you can introduce me to your new friend here?" He said, glancing at Hermione.

Hermione stood forward and introduced herself just as James took in a breath to speak. "My name's Hermione. I used to go to a school in Ireland and got transferred here."

"Such a lovely name..." Sirius took her hand and bowed low to kiss it. She felt herself blush.

"Bloody hell Sirius. You can't leave it off for five minutes can you? Honestly. Raging hormones what are you gonna do eh Hermione?."

Hermione didn't reply. She was trying to take in everything that had just happened. Here she was, in what she presumed to be the 1970s with the strange hairstyles and clothing, but not only that, she was in the company of Harry's father, James Potter, and she'd just seen Lily before and now the sixteen year old Sirius Black had just took her hand and kissed it. It all felt weird to her, but she felt trapped as though she couldn't leave now she had been seen. Yet a part of her didn't want to leave just yet.

She looked at Sirius for a while. He was indeed handsome, just as she'd imagined him to have been when she first saw him in the Shrieking Shack. Rugged and careworn, but underneath you could see that he had once been handsome. Long dark hair, dark eyes, the bad boy. _Oh my..._ she thought. _No wonder I had a bit of a soft spot for him!_

__

"Hermione are you OK?" James asked. "You look a bit dazed and confused."

"Led Zeppelin!" Sirius interrupted. "That's a great song." Suddenly he started singing. "Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true! Wanted a woman, never bargained for you!..."

_Sirius Black: Notorious mass murderer or innocent singing sensation?_ She thought to herself, remembering a headline she'd recently read in the Daily Prophet. _I know the answer twenty years before the question was even asked._ She quickly flashed a smile.

"Shut up Sirius I've had enough of that bloody band. Sorry, he's obsessed with Muggle hippie bands."

"Remus got me into them, you know him being a half-blood and all his mum's brother got him to listen to some records. You know Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, that kind of stuff-"

"Remus?... Remus Lupin?"

"Er, yeah. Do you know him?

Hermione tried to suppress a smile. She certainly didn't think Professor Lupin to be into that sort of music. "No I don't know him personally, just heard the name. Heard he's-"

"A Werewolf? How did you know that! Has Snivellus been spreading things again? I'll kill him!" Sirius made to march off but then realised she hadn't actually mentioned anything about Remus being a werewolf.

Hermione looked shocked. "Actually I was going to say that I've heard he's quite good at Defense against the Dark Arts." James was looking at Sirius with horror. Sirius looked a little embarrassed, like he'd just blurted out the biggest secret he knows to some new girl and she was going to run off crying in terror. Surprisingly she didn't move. "Well I knew that too, I mean, that is to say, I've heard things, but don't worry! I don't mind though, I um, know a werewolf myself and he's such a nice person."

"Yeah so's Remus, I don't think he's got a nasty bone in his body." James chuckled. "Anyway let's go inside shall we?" James opened the doors of the Great Hall and Sirius moved his arms to face the door and looked at Hermione with a face that said "After you." She smiled at him and walked in. _Maybe I'll stay here for a bit, then go back to the 1990s, what harm could it possibly do?_

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Well that's it for now folks. Please review! The next chapter should be up shortly.


	2. Intelligent Conversation

Told you it would be shortly! I apologise for this chapter it's mainly conversations and stuff. But I am going somewhere with this story (hopefully!) I've been listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd whilst writing this. Our dear Sirius has got me into them without even knowing it. Anyway, onward with the story.

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The three of them walked into the Great Hall and made their way towards a group of Gryffindors at the far corner.  
James saw that there was an empty space next to Lily and quickly rushed to sit beside her, leaving Hermione and Sirius alone walking to the table.

"You know, he never ceases to amaze me. The amount of times she's turned him down, and he still doesn't get the message."

"So you don't think they'll ever get together then?" Hermione smirked, awaiting his reply.

"Nah. Unless she likes him too, which she probably does actually. In fact, I've changed my mind. They're gonna end up getting married."

Hermione laughed. He looked at her. "Nice to hear you laugh."

"Um, thanks." She said, blushing. Sirius too, felt himself going slightly flushed.

"So you made any new friends yet? I mean, apart from us." He said as they sat down.

"No. I haven't been here long."

"Oh good. Well everyone this is Hermione. She's new, she got transferred from some school in Ireland." There was a unanimous tone of greeting. Hermione was introduced to a blonde boy called Mark Andrews, a girl with black hair called Sian Simbelmyne, and Lily Evans.

"Hi." Hermione said nervously, especially when she looked at Lily.

Then Sirius finally said "And this is our resident genius, Remus Lupin." Hermione looked at Lupin. He was quite handsome too in a bookish kind of way, and she couldn't help noticing a few small scars on his face, and an odd streak of grey hair just above his temple. _Poor guy._

"Hello Hermione." He said, holding out his hand. His voice sounded exactly like she thought it would, deep and focused, yet with a kind sweet nature. "Hi Remus." She shook his hand."

"And this is Peter Pettigrew." She looked at him. _The rat._ He even looked like a rat in his human form. She felt a great hate for the man, the fact that he was acting so friendly with them all. She wanted to lash out at him and kill him before he could do any damage, but she decided to remain still, and forced a smile and a hello. He smiled back, then gazed back down at his lunch.

Lupin offered Hermione some chocolate, and she took it with a slight smile. Sirius was telling Lupin all about James hoisting him from his ankles, and was telling him of a plan he had to get him next time.  
Suddenly a sharp object hit James on the head. "Ow! What the hell!" Everyone turned to the Slytherin table, where a young Lucius Malfoy was sniggering with his friends. James went to stand up but Lily stopped him.

Sirius turned to Hermione. "That's Lucius Malfoy. He's in seventh year. Probably the richest kid in the school. I'd stay away from him if I were you. He constantly torments James and pretends to be after Lily just to get at him. See the little slime ball of a boy sitting next to him? That's Severus Snape; he's in the same year as us. We call him Snivellus 'cause he goes crying to Lucius all the time." Hermione glanced over at the young Lucius and Snape. Lucius had shoulder length silvery blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes. He had a smug look on his face yet he was good-looking. Hermione saw an uncanny resemblance to Draco. _Like father like son._

Then she looked at Snape. He had the long greasy hair and hooked nose even back then, and still carried that solemn, depressed kind of look. _Nothing ever changes_. At that moment Hermione wondered if he'd ever had a girlfriend. _Probably not._ Although she felt the same could not be said for Lucius, who was snogging a blonde Slytherin girl sat next to him. _Disgusting. At least Draco doesn't do that._

"So Hermione what classes are you in?" It was James' turn to speak, and as he did so she felt a slight panic come over her. She's not even meant to be here, and she can't very well just turn up in a class and pretend that she's been transferred. It won't work. _Everyone'll notice!_

"I'm not actually assigned to any classes yet. Dumbledore decided to give me today to look around and get myself used to the place. After all it is the biggest wizarding school in the country! I um, start my classes tomorrow." She looked around at them all. They seemed to be listening to her intently. She prayed that they'd believe her, and hoped that Dumbledore was headmaster, after realising he might not be. Fortunately, they seemed to buy it.

"Oh. I didn't know they did it like that."

"No." She smiled, "Neither did I."

After a short silence James rose from his seat. "Well Hermione, I presume you haven't seen much of Hogwarts yet, so I'd be honoured to show you around."

"Thank y-"

"No it's OK James." Sirius butted in. "There's no need I already asked Hermione if I'd show her around." _Did he? _"Come on Hermione." He said as he jumped off his seat and took her arm. "There's so much to see, and people to do." He stopped. "Hold on, strike that, reverse it." She laughed. "Have you seen that film? Yeah I know it's a Muggle film but Gene Wilder is brilliant. He's my Muggle hero."

Being from a Muggle family, she had seen that film many times, she told him.

"You're Muggle-born? Great!" He said. That was the first time she'd ever heard someone say it was great before. "Well anyway enough of this chat, time to show you some of the best places in the country!" They moved out through the doors of the Great Hall into the crowded corridors, leaving James and Remus looking at Sirius in disbelief.

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I don't like that chapter that much, but I guess it was necessary! Next chapter up soon.


	3. Flowers And Moonlight

Thanks for the reviews everyone! I'm afraid this chapter is going to be mainly conversation and a lot of the 'being a teenager in love' syndrome going on too. But awww don't you just love Sirius he's so dreamy. Why can't all men be like Sirius?

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"Why don't you like your family?"

"Are you joking? They're the family from hell. They bring you up to worship the Dark Arts and if you try and rebel they…" He paused as if trying to find the correct word, "Outcast you." He said whilst pulling up grass and flowers from the garden they were sitting on.

"Seriously?" Hermione remembered the adult Sirius telling her a story of when his mother blasted his name from the Black family tree back in Grimmauld Place.

"Oh yeah. I hate them all. The only one I've got the slightest sympathy for is my brother, but even he's an idiot." He smashed his fist into the ground, then pulling up a white flower he began to dissect it. Satisfied he'd given the flower enough torture for today, he threw it away and dusted his hands. Hermione wondered if they'd ever be off this subject, she didn't like it when she saw him upset.

"What's your brother's name?"

"Regulus. He's younger than me. I hate my dad though. He threw me out of the house the other day when he found out I'd been hanging around with Remus and Lily, said something about "a pureblood from a noble family hanging around with a monster and a mud blood.""

Hermione looked down at the ground. 

"Sorry." Sirius said. "I hope I didn't offend you when I said that, some people don't like that word ya see, I mean, I don't either you know?"

"It's ok. I have a-, in my old school someone used to call me it all the time. It doesn't bother me."

"Good, and it shouldn't." Sirius replied whilst pointing a blue flower at her that he'd just unearthed. He looked at it uncomfortably then handed it to her. She said nothing and he carried on talking, seemingly un-phased by the gesture he had just made.

"How long have we been out for?" She said as she started stroking the petals of the flower he'd just gave her.

"I don't know, about 2 hours."

"2 hours! Don't you have lessons?"

"Hey calm down, you're new here. I'm sure they'd let me off for showing you around, and besides, it's only Potions, I missed it before anyway."

She gave him her "Hermione look", as Harry and Ron would have called it, and he smiled at her. She couldn't help noticing his dark brown eyes as he did so, and the way he was starting to get slight stubble on his chin, and how his shirt was unbuttoned at the collar. _Stop! This is just wrong! He's too old for me! I mean well he's not but, back home, is that the right word? Well back home he is, and I don't think Harry would approve, or Molly! God she'd kill me if she found this out she doesn't even like Sirius much as it is! Oh my God he's gorgeo-_

"Are you OK?" He interrupted her thoughts. "You look a little, shall I say it again, dazed and confused? Except you don't look confused really just a bit, dazed."

"I'm feeling a bit hot."

"Yeah it is hot today." He quickly stood up and held out his hand to her. "Come on I'll take you to the lake. It should be really beautiful down there today." She took his hand and he helped her up as she stuffed the flower in her bag. "There was this one time though, when me and James stole these really fast, and I mean _really_ fast brooms from Filch's cupboard. I don't know how they got there, but they were there anyway, and we took them for a spin down at the lake. Unfortunately though I kind of lost control of the broom, I'm not as good as James at flying, and went falling off it right into the lake. I was terrified in case I'd get eaten by the Loch Ness monster or something, even though the lake isn't Loch Ness. Nessie's distant cousin there you go. I was terrified and I was screaming and James was just spinning around on his broom laughing his head off. I could have died you know!"

Hermione was in hysterics at the images she had going through her head. "So what did you do?"

"Well I eventually swam to the shore, but it's freezing in there. So the moral of that story is, don't go swimming in that lake!"

"Well thank you Mr. Black for that wonderful advice, although you've just completely ruined my life as all day I'd been planning to do that." She laughed and he gave her a quick squeeze of her hand, causing her to realise she'd been holding his hand the whole way. _This. Is bad._

They spent the long walk to the lake talking about everything really, from stupid stories that Sirius was telling, and how it's so hard for Hermione to keep her hair curly the way she does, to their views on why they think the Ministry is corrupted.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Sirius asked her.

"I don't know, I like to read and I guess I just pick things up."

"You must be the brightest witch of your age." He said with a gleam in his eyes.

"What?" She could have sworn she'd heard him say that before, and that glint in his eye looked frighteningly familiar too. She shrugged it off.

They passed a group of giggling fourth years who were sitting by a tree. "Hi Sirius…" They called out in unison. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Hello ladies." They looked like they were about to faint. Then they noticed Hermione and Sirius were holding hands, and they gave her a look that Hermione presumed wished death upon her. Sirius seemed to notice. "Well anyway ladies I'd love to stay and chat but, well, we've got to go, got stuff to do, you know?" He wrapped his arm around her waist as he said this. Hermione laughed and noticed her body tingled at his touch. "Come on babe let's go." She thought that _she _was going to faint when he called her babe. Eventually she pulled herself back together.

"Who were they?" She asked inquisitively.

"I have no idea." Sirius replied and barked a laugh.

"So you're a bit of a heartthrob then?"

"Heartthrob! Ha!" His face dropped. "Yeah. Believe it or not I'm only after the quiet life. You know, settle down, live somewhere nice and peaceful, get married and live happily ever after."

"You liar." She knew enough about the adult Sirius to know that this was a lie.

"Well I guess that's good. It makes you better than all those other girls who believe every word I say and hang on to my every word like my voice was chocolate. Lupin's the one with the chocolate-to-the-ears voice! He's addicted to the stuff!"

"Yeah well he's shy. Always has been. I think it's something to do with the _werewolf_ thing." He whispered werewolf as though they were amongst a crowd of people.

"It probably is. Poor guy."

"Now if only Remus were like James the way he is with Lily. Honestly, I mean yeah she's a pretty girl and all but I think he's just been completely and utterly blinded by love. You'll never see me being turned to mush by a girl."

"I think it's sweet that he loves her that much." She eyed him questioningly.

"Well yeah it is but what I meant to say was er- actually I don't know."

They arrived at the lake and it really was beautiful. The last time she'd been here was, actually it might have been when her and Harry had to save the adult Sirius and Harry from all those Dementors when she used the time-turner. _That bloody thing. _She reminded herself that the first thing she must do when she gets home is to stamp on it quite hard. _I suppose I can thank it really, because if it wasn't broken then I wouldn't have met Sirius._ She wondered to herself whether that was indeed a good thing or a bad thing. She was then reminded that she was going to have to go home soon, and it suddenly dawned on her that she couldn't stay here with Sirius forever, she put her arm around his waist, gripping him tighter, as though to savour every moment she had left.

He looked down at her quite shocked at what she'd just done. He shrugged it off and put his arm around her shoulder, both of them now looking out at the lake.

"I love this place.." She said dreamily.

"You've been here before?"

"Well no, I just love it, from what I've seen of it now anyway."

"Yeah it's great. I've got some great memories of being in that forest there late at nigh-"

"Sirius!" She hit him affectionately.

"Hehe, sorry."

She saw the Shrieking Shack just across the lake from here, and she could see Hogsmeade in the distance too. She also noticed it was getting dark very fast, but she didn't worry. She was here with Sirius and from what she'd heard and already knew so far about the man, he'd protect her.

"You know, today's been one of the best days of my life."

"I know, mine too, we've had a laugh haven't we?" He smiled, recollecting what had happened today.

"It was really funny when we snuck into Filch's office and took all those exploding candies. Then when Snape called me a mud blood and you used Levicorpus on him! That'll teach him." She laughed and buried her head in his chest, realising it was getting cold.

"You know Hermione…" She looked up at him. "I've never met a girl like you before, you're so, different. It's great."

"Same about you, except you're a guy." He began to run his hand through her hair, as he did so she felt herself pushing away from his chest, staring into his eyes. _Those damn eyes._

He moved closer and leaned towards her. She knew what was coming next. She tried with all her might to fight back and turn away. _Oh, please don't kiss me, that'll really complicate things…  
_She tried with all the will in her head to step back, but she felt herself moving closer to him. In the end she just couldn't resist.

There was only one word to describe that kiss in Hermione's eyes, breathtaking. He kissed like an expert, probably because he is one. Even after it she still had memories of what it was like, slowly at first, and then he moved himself against her and pulled her close. Mirroring every move she made with her lips, whilst his hands were slowly caressing her waist and her neck.

They both looked at each other, slightly breathless. He began stroking her hair and she had her hands around his neck. _I don't ever want to leave._

The wind began to pick up and it whistled around and through them. They both looked up at the sky. "Isn't the moon beautiful?" She said to him.

"Yeah it is." He looked up and saw that it was very bright, there were no clouds and it hung low in the sky. Then he realised, that it was full.

"Oh God the moon! We shouldn't be out here at this time! I forgot it was a full moon tonight! Oh God he could be anywhere! Remus I'm going to kill you!" He grabbed her hand and rushed away, dragging her behind him. "Come on we've got to get out of here quick!"

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Well there you go. I apologise once again for the length of this chapter and it being mainly dialogue, but it is going somewhere! I promise you! (Once again, hopefully!)  
Please review. Next chapter will be up soon.


	4. The Flight

It's my birthday today, and after enjoying my 17th birthday celebrations I came on here to return to my having-no-life status and began writing this chapter!  
- **froggifrog**, (great name!) I was thinking about a teacher spotting them, but then I considered that Hermione was only present in Hogwarts for a short while before Sirius showed her around the grounds, which were all mainly forbidden areas anyway, because well, this is Sirius! And also Hermione was in her Hogwarts robes anyway so she would not have been easy to spot.- **Ron's Secret Lover**, it was meant to be Sirius saying that it was great that Hermione is muggle-born, not the other way round, but I can see how you got confused so I've changed that little bit slightly. Thanks for the reviews **silverpheonix2, amrawo, froggifrog, The O.C Addict, Ron's Secret Lover, Yuna-08, Punker88, **it means a lot!

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They were running fast now, up a steep hill in the forest, Sirius clutching Hermione's hand tightly and dragging her behind him. She was finding it difficult to keep up with him.

"Sirius! Sirius can't we stop for a bit? I can't run for much longer!"

"We're going to have to keep running Hermione." He said panting, "He could be anywhere." He looked behind and into her eyes for a moment, and for the first time, she saw a flash of fear in them. She could not understand why he was so scared. She searched for the right words to say.

"What's so dangerous? Can't you just transform into a dog and he won't harm us?" He stopped dead and turned around to face her, she realised that those words were not the right ones to use. He eyed her curiously.

"How do you know that?"

Her breathing began to get heavier, she knew she was trapped. She was going to have to explain everything. Feeling a sense of panic beginning to come over her, she quickly spoke "Look, I…I.." She sighed, and then looked straight at him. "I know a lot more than you think I do, let's leave it at that." He clearly wasn't satisfied with this reply. She knew she was going to have to explain more. "I'll tell you everything later on, but for now could you answer my question? Remus won't harm us if you're an animal right? As werewolves don't usually attack other animals, only people."

He paused for a moment, deliberating on what to say. There was no time to ask more questions. He could find out the full truth later, when they were safe. For now he had to protect her and by protecting her at this moment it meant answering her questions.

"No." He paused. "If I transform, he won't attack me, but I'm not prepared to do that at the moment as it won't protect you from him. If he finds you he'll still go after you, and if he knows I'm defending you from him he'll attack me too."

"But why will he be out here in the woods by the lake? Doesn't he always transform and stay in the Shrieking Shack?"

Sirius again wondered how she knew all this, and again decided that now was not the time to ask questions, he needed to answer them.

"Sometimes…he doesn't stay there, and I can't guarantee if he's there or not right now." A howl was heard, and it sounded as though it was not far away from here. "That's why we must get back quickly, there's no more time for questions."

With that he grabbed her hand and began rushing her through the woods. Hermione wondered if these woods would ever end. She grew more and more nervous, and struggled to keep up with Sirius' fast pace. Panting more heavily now, she refused to go on any further. She stopped, dragging Sirius to an abrupt halt in front of her. "Hermione what are you doing? We can't stop now!" He was getting impatient with her.

Hermione struggled for breath, and slumped herself against a tree. In between breaths she spoke, "I'm sorry Sirius. I can't go on any further. You're going to have to go on without me." He gave her a look as though to signal that there was no chance in hell of that happening. He couldn't even care if she could walk or not, he'd drag her back by the wrists if he had too.

"OK Hermione, if you come back with me now, I'll never go after any other girl again and I'll pledge myself as yours forever, now come on!" He grabbed her arm again, and she couldn't help but force a slight smile at those words. She suddenly felt a quick purge of adrenaline and ran with him.

Then all of a sudden, she tripped over something on the ground, and landed flat on her face. She became quite dizzy, and looked around expecting Sirius to lift her up, but she couldn't see him. He mustn't have noticed she fell. She shouted "Sirius!" But all she could hear were the sounds of a muffled set of footsteps coming towards her.   
She looked up and saw what seemed to be a large brown blob of fur, then teeth, and paws and… as her vision returned she saw what it was. Panicking now, she backed herself up into a tree, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She never felt more scared in her life. 

She heard a muffled growl, and suddenly it was moving towards her, faster now, it was running for her. She felt helpless. She didn't know what to do. All she could do was just lie there, against the tree, waiting for it. She let out a scream as it came hurtling towards her. She seemed to be wrestling with it on the ground, she cried out as it scratched at her flesh, then she felt a terrible pain and she let out a scream that was so deafening it made her feel sick once she'd done it. 

Then another large black blur came tumbling towards the beast, fighting with it. She could see that it was a large black dog. "Sirius..." she whispered, now feeling faint. The dog fought with the wolf. Teeth clashing and claws striking. The fight seemed to last for hours. Or at least that's what it felt like to Hermione. Finally, the dog bit into the wolf, causing a deep wound that bled fresh blood. The wolf yelped in pain, and began to move off. The dog chased it through the woods. Satisfied the wolf had run away far enough, the dog came running back towards her. As it ran, it transformed back into its original human form. It was now Sirius sprinting towards her. His clothes were slightly torn and blood was running down his cheek. He kneeled beside her and anxiously looked to see what was wrong.

"Hermione..." He said, "Hermione I'm so sorry. You fell behind. I looked back and I couldn't see you. I ran back and couldn't find you." He stroked her hair and held out her hand. Looking up her arm he could see blood seeping through her clothes. He then looked to see where the wound was. He carefully peeled back the part of her sleeve which was torn. What he saw made him gasp and stagger backwards. He looked at Hermione, whose face told nothing more than shock. She looked down to her shoulder and found amongst the blood and bits of thread from her clothes, a distinctive mark and a bruise. She looked up at Sirius, whose hands were covering his gaping mouth. Tears began to fall down her face, and she finally realised there was no doubting anymore, the sharp pain she had felt, the blood, the mess, it only meant one horrible thing. She had been bitten.

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Oh no! I felt kind of depressed after writing this. And yes I am sort of basing the fight between Padfoot and Remuswolf on PoA, but that's all I have to base it on really. Hope you liked this chapter, sorry it was so short. The next one should be up in a couple of days, review please!


	5. Help From A Friend

Oh dear I've got so into reading books and playing guitar that I sort of, forgot to update. Please don't kill me. :-p I've gotten quite good at playing some Pink Floyd and Beatles songs.  
Once again thanks for the reviews! **Punker88 -** I know it really is sad. sheds tear but hey maybe they'll be able to fix it, or not! Hehe.

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She opened her eyes and realised Sirius was carrying her, up what seemed to be, quite a steep hill. In her shock she must have fainted, and she did feel very sick. She glanced at Sirius. She could see droplets of sweat on his forehead, and he was breathing heavily. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry, that it was all her fault for paying more attention to books instead of sports causing her to be un-athletic and fall, but she couldn't find the right words to say. There were no right words to say in this situation. Nothing, she thought, could be worse than this.

Tilting her head to the side she looked up and noticed where he was taking her, the distinct towers of Hogwarts shone in the moonlight directly in front of them.

"No!" She cried. "You can't take me there! Stop!" But he ignored her. Panicking, she began to struggle, causing him to stop running and instinctively set her down on a large rock that jutted out of the ground.

"What is it?" His tone was harsh. There was a sense of impatience is his voice. Hermione found herself speaking quickly to him.

"I can't go up there. I'm not supposed to be here! You don't understand!"

"Well we're both not supposed to be here I thought I made that clear by when we were bolting it through the woods. Come on we've got to get you to see Madam Pomfrey. I don't know what she'll do to you, don't think she can do anything, they'll probably send you to St. Mungo's." He made a motion which meant he was hurrying her to let him lift her up. He obviously felt she was in no position to walk, even though she felt perfectly capable of it. She could not understand why she felt alright. She assumed that when you were bitten you'd be unconscious for days, and then when you finally came to, you'd still be so weak you wouldn't be able to move. Maybe it kicked in later, she thought.

She stopped him from lifting her up. "You can't take me up there. Sirius, please. There's something I have to tell you. I haven't been honest with you at all today. Just stop! You need to listen to me! Sit down." Surprisingly to her, he obeyed, but the look in his eyes did nothing to hide the confusion they now held. She also felt him take her hand in his, although she unexpectedly took her hand away. There was a long pause. She found herself trying to think of the right way to tell him, to make sure she included everything, and in the lightest way possible without him reacting too badly.

She didn't speak. Instead she put her hand into her small bag and rummaged around for something. She pulled out a golden chain, and at the end of it was an hourglass pendant, with two golden bands encompassed around it. He took it in his hand as she handed it to him. "Do you know what that is?" She asked him. He shook his head, transfixed by the detail of the object. He studied it closely, wondering what it could be for. He noticed the hourglass in the middle and guessed it was some kind of elaborate watch. "What is it?" He asked.

"It's a time-turner."

"A time…turner?" His head began to flood with ideas, yet he dismissed them all, clinging on to some false hope that they were all wrong. "Hermione…I'm sorry, but you've confused me. What is going on? What does it do?"

She found herself telling him everything. About how she got here thinking she was just ten minutes late for a lesson, and who she really was, how she recognised him and the others, and why she didn't go back when she should have done. She ended up telling him more than she wanted to, finding that one sentence would open up another, and she ended up confessing absolutely everything. Although she did manage to not mention things like James and Lily dying, Harry being born, and him becoming a wanted criminal in the future.

There was a long silence after she'd finished talking. She studied him, looking for any hint of what he was thinking. He seemed to be trying to comprehend everything, and he'd stayed unusually silent throughout the whole of her speech. Finally, he said "So that's how you knew I was an animagus then?" He gave her a sideward smile. She eyed him closely, surprised at his reaction. "Although that now really… complicates things." He said with a humourless laugh. She waited for him to speak further. "Why didn't you tell me before?" He looked down at the ground.

"Because, well, I, I don't know why. I'm sorry."

"So, you're a girl from the future then? When in the future?"

"The early nineties." 

"Wow. That's weird. That would make me in my thirties!"

"Yeah you are."

"Are? So you know me like, well then?"

"Kind of."

"Hang on so you're the same age that you are now, when I'm in my thirties. Oh my God, that's just, that's just weird." He looked a little shocked at this thought.

"So I take it we're not, well you know, together then?"

"No." She sighed.

"I see. Although that does explain a lot to me now, it makes more sense as to how you just suddenly appeared here and you do look a bit different to other girls, and how you already know about me. I thought I had a stalker."

"Don't get your hopes up." She felt herself smile. Her expression soon turned to a frown. "Now do you understand why I can't be seen by any teacher? If they see me they'll ask me questions. Some of them know me quite well in my time. I'm glad that I wasn't spotted when I was back in Hogwarts earlier today. I didn't think of that then though, I can't risk it."

"But you can't just leave it! You're a werewolf now! I can't just send you off back to your time as a werewolf. That's kind of a big change that wasn't there before, wouldn't that mess things up a bit? We've got to do something."

"But what? There's no cure for it. I'm stuck like this now forever and there's nothing I can do about it." She suddenly felt very weak and drowsy. Her head felt really light and she felt as though she couldn't breathe. She thought she had looked up at the sky but she couldn't remember moving her head. Then she realised she was falling, sliding off the rock, and she could not summon the energy to steady herself.

Suddenly she felt arms around her, breaking her fall, and Sirius was once again holding her up. "You know you've got to stop doing this."

"I'm sorry." She mumbled. "I feel terrible. I don't know what's happening."

"I do. The er, poison… if that's the right term for it, disease, virus, whatever, is taking a hold of you. Maybe you're too weak to be able to handle the change to your body." Sirius remembered something Remus had told him a long time ago, about the fact that most victims of werewolf bites don't survive the change. He thought it would be best not to mention this at the moment. "If you make it through tonight then you should be OK by tomorrow. It's not a full moon then."

Hermione's felt nauseous. "But why haven't I turned into a werewolf now? It's still a full moon. Surely now that I'm infected I'd turn into one."

"Not really. It takes a while for it to kick in. You'll probably be able to transform at the next full moon."

"What am I going to do? I can't do anything." She sounded almost vunerable. "I can't go back to the castle because I'd get spotted. I can't go anywhere else because this just simply isn't my time, and I can't go back to my own time as a werewolf!"

She looked at Sirius. He looked as though he was deep in thought, formulating some kind of plan. Maybe he knew something she didn't. Maybe he knew of a secret cure or some kind of way to get her out of this situation.  
Immediately though, her hopes seemed dashed. His concentrating look disappeared, and he shrugged put his hands in his pockets looking solemn. She was quite surprised. The roguish Sirius Black could be smart when he wanted to be. He seemed to have a knack for thinking of the right thing at the last minute. He'd done quite well so far, but now it seems, there was nothing anyone could do.

Suddenly though, his hand pulled something out of his pocket. It was wrapped in an old black linen cloth. He looked at it for a while, and Hermione was looking at him, waiting for him to say something.

"You know, I'm only supposed to use this when I'm in detention. He's gonna kill me."

Before she even had time to ask, he had unveiled the object. It was a small mirror, with quite a wide frame and a scratched face. _Oh well that's wonderful. "Let's just check how my hair looks before I tell the girl she's screwed".. What good is a bloody mirror going to do?_

Nevertheless, she sat and looked dumbfounded at him at what he began to do next.

Tapping on the mirror three times, he brought it closer to his face and cleared his throat as though he was in a bathroom about to rehearse a best man speech in front of the medicine cabinet. He began to speak quite clearly and precisely. "James. James are you there? James Potter. Prongs! Answer me!"

A tired looking face appeared on the mirror. It had messy black hair, brown eyes, and was squinting terribly. It was the face of James Potter. "What do you want?"

"Look I'm sorry for waking you up and that, but I need your help at the moment, I'm in a bit of an erm, situation. Could you come down and get me?"

"I can't believe you Padfoot. I was asleep. What are you doing out this late anyway? Why do you need me? Can't you just use the tunnels or something? I-" He yawned. "-Hate you."

"I'm sorry mate, but you know I wouldn't ask for your help if I didn't need it." Hermione somewhat doubted that statement.

"Oh alright then, but you owe me. Where are you?"

"Outside the forest by the lake, sitting on a rock. You should be able to just see us when you make your way out of the second east tunnel passageway, which I assume you'll be using." He grinned.

"Let me go and get my glasses."

"Hurry." Then James' face was gone, and the mirror was normal once again. Sirius returned it to his pocket and looked up at Hermione. "A little trick we invented so we could talk to each other in detentions. I hope he stops at the kitchens on the way, I could really do with something to eat right now." Right now, Hermione couldn't even think about food.

"Why did you need him to come here? What good is he going to do?"

"You'll see."

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Well there you go! Once again really sorry I haven't updated for ages, I went away last week and I've only just got back. Next chapter up soon. Review!


	6. Revelations In The Dorm

Gosh it has been a long time hasn't it! The reason for that is because I completely and utterly forgot where I was going with this story. So I kind of left it, but now (I think) I remember where I'm going with it now so I'm gonna just carry on and see what happens! Suggestions would be nice! Thanks to everyone for the reviews, they mean so much to me. And to my friend Phil who may be reading this, yes I am obsessed with Sirius but I don't care 'coz heZ s0 $exY! Hehe. Ahem yes anyway, on with the story.

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She lay there on the floor completely drained of energy. She could feel her eyelids failing her, and the fact that the damp grass she was lying on suddenly became quite comfortable was not helping the situation. Being fully prepared to let sleep take her away, meaning she would never have to think or feel again seemed like a good idea. She lay there waiting for the comforting arms of sleep to enthrall her. Once they came she was taken away to a faraway place amongst the stars of the night, and she danced amongst the tall grasses by an endless moonlit river. Overhead she could hear a familiar bird-song, and she gazed happily into the night. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing except this moment, and nothing could take this feeling away…

"You alright down there?"

An all too familiar voice brought her back to her senses. She had dozed off temporarily, and she opened her eyes to discover a pair of dark brown eyes looking down at her from a distance, then she remembered she was lying on the floor, and Sirius was sitting on a rock protruding out of the ground. He seemed to be fumbling around with something metal, probably the chain he wore around his wrist. Hermione felt a dull aching pain in the side of her head. "Yes", came the short and quick answer, she was eager to close her eyes again, although knowing she probably wouldn't be able to, but Sirius seemed to be reading her thoughts.

"You just rest there, if you want to sleep then feel free, you need it. I'll wake you up when James gets here, if James ever gets here." he muttered silently to himself. "Here, take this. It may be a short while before he gets here, he'd have to go slowly with the cloak and the map to avoid being seen." He took off his cloak and laid it over her. She felt a rush of gratitude towards him, and deeply appreciated the comfort she felt. It was still warm. Snuggling into it like a blanket, she didn't care if there were spiders in here hair, all that mattered was that she was safe knowing that Sirius was watching over her, and nothing bad could happen, well, nothing worse than what had already happened to her.

"Thank you." She mouthed. Her rest was short-lived however, or at least it felt like it was. For no sooner than when she dozed off again Sirius had nudged her and awoken her, telling her something about James walking into him and giving him the fright of his life. Then she heard another voice, the voice of James.

"Oh aye Sirius what've you two been up to going all _au naturel_ and getting comfy outdoors?" He glanced at Hermione lying under Sirius' cloak. Sirius however was in no mood for jokes, the expression on his face being one of impatience and worry.

"Shut it James. Something bad's happened to her, it's really important. I called for you because it'll be easier to get to our dorms under the invisibility cloak instead of sneaking our way round Hogwarts at night. Usually I'd be all for it but this time I don't want to take any risks." James looked slightly stunned at Sirius' sudden stroke of serious-ness. Sirius didn't usually act like this, James thought. Something awful must really have happened. He thought it best to start acting a bit more seriously himself.

"What's happened?" He asked, noticing now how pale Hermione looked.

"Where is Moony?" Sirius asked, avoiding his question.

"Erm, he's out isn't he? Full moon and that. I thought you were going with him so I stayed in 'coz I was going to meet Lily tonight."

"No I was with Hermione and-" He realised it may be best to not explain everything until they got back to their dorms. "Nothing, come on we need to get her back to our dorm, and I'll explain everything there." He took his cloak back and went to lift her up. "Come on Hermione let me lift you up." As he did so she obligingly lifted her back up so he could slide his arms under her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, still saying nothing.

James threw the cloak around all three of them. They began to walk back up towards Hogwarts castle. "Hang on, we can't bring her back to our dorm, Sirius, she's a, girl!"

"Well spotted mate. Is that why it took so long for you and Lily to get it together? Coz you took so long to notice she was a girl?" He gave a dry laugh, then his expression returned to its grave state. "Look, I wouldn't take her back to our dorm if I thought it wasn't something really important, and if it wasn't necessary." He added.

"Fine then. For some mad reason I trust you."

"Good."

"What way are we talking her back? Can you carry her through the tunnel down past the dungeon? Or are we just going the normal way?"

"Normal way. We've got the cloak and the map, we should be alright, as long as we're quiet."

They eventually got to the castle, and began to ascend the stairs into the West Tower. After quietly passing the Great Hall, and then past the kitchens, after James briefly stopping to decide if he should go in, they safely made it back towards the Gryffindor common room, with the portrait of the Fat Lady in front of them loudly snoring away. James got out from under the cloak and cleared his throat. The Fat Lady awoke with a fright. "Oh! Who's there! Oh it's you. Honestly I'm surprised you haven't been caught yet you and your rabble-"

"We have. Ginger Snaps."

"Yes, yes alright. Just don't wake me up like that again." And the portrait moved to allow them to enter.

Once inside the Common Room they could safely take off the cloak, as it was empty except for a very large cat, lying fast asleep on an old shabby couch by the fireplace.

"Let's get up to our dorm."

They quietly yet swiftly made their way up the winding staircase towards their dormitory. Sirius was glad of this however; as his arms were beginning to ache from carrying Hermione all the way back to Hogwarts. James seemed to notice this.

"Can't she walk by herself?" Sirius didn't answer this. He was annoyed at his friend for not taking this seriously, then again, he doesn't know what's wrong with her yet, he thought, and it's even worse that it's happened to her, as she's not even supposed to be born yet.

"I hope she's alright." He said, forgetting about the ache in his arms. "I really do like her you know James, and that's not good because I can't, I always go for the ones I can't have."

"That's a lie, you can have anyone you want and you know it!"

"Yeah but the one person I want the most I can't have." He looked down at her, and left James to wonder what he could possibly mean by that.

Once inside their dorm they could see that it was empty. Sirius quickly checked why that was the case. "I'm here, you're here, and Remus is out. So where's Peter?"

"Who knows? Probably scurrying around with Remus."

"No he's not. Remus is on his own tonight."

"How do you know?" There was an uncomfortable silence in which Sirius once again avoided James' question. James was about to open his mouth to press the question further when another voice broke the silence.

"Tell him Sirius. He needs to know"

"Hermione! Are you alright, you passed out I think."

"No I didn't. I've been awake the whole time, just tired so I haven't said anything."

Sirius went a slight shade of pink, as he realised that this meant she must have heard everything he said about her to James.

"Oh well erm, are you sure?"

"Yes. He may as well know. It'll stop him from asking questions anyway."

"OK…." He looked at James. "The reason, why I know that Remus was on his own is because well, he attacked us."

"He attacked you!"

"Yeah. It's all my fault, I sort of forgot that it was a full moon tonight, I'd been with Hermione all day, and well my mind was elsewhere and-" He realised he was rambling, he took a deep breath and continued, "Anyway, like I said Remus attacked us. We ran, Hermione fell behind, he attacked Hermione, and I came back as a dog and attacked him back, he must've got startled by it 'coz he ran off after that."

"It wasn't your fault Sirius." He ignored her.

"I went to check on Hermione and I realised she was hurt, so I ran to her and she was pale and looked frightened, I noticed there was a lot of blood coming from her shoulder and well, I peeled back the material and noticed, that she'd, she had a bite mark on her skin."

"Sirius it wasn't your fault." She spoke louder this time. Sirius just hung his head and stared at the floor, again refusing to answer her. She looked at James; he was almost as pale as she was.

"So, you're saying, she's now a werewolf!" Sirius nodded. "But why've you brought her back here! She'll need to go to the hospital wing, or St. Mungos! We need to tell Dumbledore!"

Sirius stood up. "No you can't!" James couldn't believe that Sirius was keeping this a secret from everyone. "I said those exact same things to her, I almost rushed her back here, when she eventually stopped me and told me, well-" He looked at Hermione, "You tell him this bit."

She sat up on the bed and spoke, "James, I'm not from this time." She paused, allowing the look of confusion to spread across his face just like it did to Sirius a few moments before. "You see this?" She took out her time-turner. "It's called a time-turner." She handed it to him, "I'm from the future, when you are all in your thirties." She didn't want to mention that James would be dead by then and Sirius would be an escaped convict.

"But how? How did you get back here? I mean if I had a time-turner, I wouldn't have thought 1974 would be anything special."

"In my time, I sometimes use a time-turner to speed things up a little; it sometimes means I can do more than one lesson at once if you see what I mean. Dumbledore gave it to me in my third year. But, I think it's broken. I turned it to go back half an hour and I think I must've turned it back to far."

"But why didn't you go back once you realised you were in the wrong time?"

"Because I was stupid, I wanted to explore this place, no-one would notice me as I was in Hogwarts robes, the same ones as you lot had. Times don't change much do they?" She smiled dryly, and looked at Sirius. "And I guess I sort of, liked... it here." Sirius flashed her a smile, then they both turned to look at James, who looked a lot more relaxed now he'd been explained the full details.

"Ah, so this is a problem then isn't it? You can't get help here because you're not supposed to be born yet, and we can't just send you back to your time as a werewolf because you weren't one before."

"Precisely."

"So what do we do James, any ideas mate?"

"No idea. Maybe we should wait for Remus to get back? He might know what to do."

"But doesn't he stay in the hospital wing for 4 days after a transformation?"

"Oh yeah, damn that's not much help."

"Wait!" Hermione suddenly had a flash of an idea. "James, give me that time-turner back." He curiously handed it back to her. "Who needs to wait for 4 days when I've got this?" She said excitedly.

"Brilliant!" said Sirius, and before he knew what he was doing he kissed her on the cheek, causing her to go red and James to nervously make a small coughing noise. Sirius then blinked and said "Erm, what are you gonna do with this then?"

"Oh Sirius you idiot isn't it obvious?"

"Is it?"

"Oh come here you idiot." Hermione pulled Sirius to sit on the bed next to her, causing him to give an anticipated "Oh aye." James followed suit, much to Sirius' disappointment.

Hermione unfixed the chain on the time-turner, and wrapped it around all three of their necks. Sirius finally clicked on, "Oh."

This time she carefully fixed the dial, and made sure by checking it twice, to four days in the future from this moment. Once she'd set it in motion. The room felt like it was spinning; figures were moving all around them. James clutched at his stomach as though he was going to vomit. Sirius just stood in awe.

Then it stopped, and the three of them were still sat there on the same bed. James and Sirius, who obviously have never experienced time-traveling before, seemed a bit dazed.

"Now then. Everyone alright?" Hermione said. There were small nods of apprehension. "Good, now all we've got to do is sit here and wait for Lupin to get back."

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Yep this one's quite long, but I guess it makes up for my long absence from not writing anything. Hope you liked it. Please review!


	7. Removing The Blood

Hey everyone. First of all I must make a thousand apologies for not updating this fic. in what, a year or so?! I've been terribly busy and it was only recently that I had a wave of inspiration whilst watching Order of the Phoenix on how to finally finish this fic. This chapter is simply the same chapter 7 as before but it has been updated and edited. Hope you like it. The next chapter will be up in a couple of days. I promise!

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They waited in the dorm of the Marauders, four days into the future. Hermione was relieved that the time turner had actually worked this time. She checked the clock beside one of the beds to be sure. _Yep, it's exactly four days from when I last looked at it. _

She noticed she felt completely fine now, probably due to it being nearly eight hours since she was bitten. Eight hours? God she felt tired just thinking about it. She wondered for a short moment how long she would be here for, and then her mind crossed to when she'd have to leave, and have to leave Sirius…

It's not like she's going to be leaving him forever. He'd still be there when she gets back to her time, only around twenty years older. It depressed her just to think about it. She couldn't stay. She doesn't belong here, and there's no way for Sirius to go back with her. That's just impossible.

Still, it would be nice, she thought.

Suddenly she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, hugging her tight. As if sensing her feelings, she heard Sirius say "Don't worry, we'll find a way out of this."

"I hope so." She whispered.

"Yeah so do I. I'm hungry." Said James.

"James, usually it's me that can only think of his stomach in a time like this."

"Actually, I'm quite hungry too." Hermione looked at Sirius when she said this. He had a look on his face suggesting he thought that he was the only one taking the whole situation seriously.

Finally he spoke. "James get the cloak out and get down to the kitchens will you? We're all starving here!" He quickly flashed a smile, showing off his perfectly straight, white teeth, with slightly larger canines, Hermione noticed. "I'm gonna stay here and make sure Hermione's alright."

"Understood." James gave Sirius a subtle wink, and in a flash pulled out his invisibility cloak and disappeared. They both listened until they could hear his footsteps going out of the room, closing the door, and down the staircase.

"Where's Lupin?" Hermione asked.

"No idea. He should be out by now, but I don't know, maybe he's going to be in a little longer this time because well…" He stopped before he finished the sentence. His eyes suddenly fixed on Hermione. "Hey, maybe you should lie down for a bit. You must be tired."

She began to think that that was a good idea, and she lay herself down on the bed, resting her head on the pillow.

"You know, it's funny that you picked that bed."

"Why's that then? Is this your bed?" She smiled.

"Yeah it is."

"I wonder how many other girls have been here then?"

"Well…. You're my favourite let's put it that way." He winked.

"Oh thanks, I think that's a compliment."

"Yeah it was…. No seriously, you're the first."

"Why is that then? Because you've kissed all your other girls down by the lake?"

She suddenly found that he was moving closer to her, and leant over her. Before she knew what she was doing she willingly accepted him. She liked the way he kissed, no other boy she'd kissed before was like him. He just seemed more experienced like he knew what he was doing. Either that or he really liked her so his passion was shining through. She didn't want it to be the latter, she didn't want him to have fallen for her. But somewhere deep down she knew it was the most likely.

She sighed. "Sirius I can't do this."

"Can't do what? I'm not that bad am I?"

"No- You know…this."

"Oh." He nodded. "I understand."

"You do?"

"Yeah, it's kind of like it's wrong because it's not meant to be and all that I know, but frankly Hermione I couldn't care less what time you're from, I really like you and nothing you say's gonna change that, but it's because I like you that I'll do whatever you want, and if you don't want me to kiss you then that's fine." He looked disappointed.

"No it's not that. I like you too, but it's just more of a case of I don't want to fall for you too much, because I know I'm still going to have to leave you in the end." She had a look of sadness in her eyes. Somehow they connected, for instead of just kissing her again, or turning away to sulk, Sirius pulled her into a hug. A hug which Hermione wished would last forever.

They talked for a while afterwards, neither of them noticing that James had taken so long going to the kitchens, and Remus was not yet back from the hospital wing.

"So what am I like in the future then?" Sirius sat up on the bed cross-legged.

"Well, what do you mean? In what sense?"

"Well am I rich? Married? Bald? Anything. Please don't tell me I've gone bald."

"You're sort of rich, you're not married, and no you haven't gone bald."

"Yes! Is my hair still long?"

"Yeah. It's sort of long and curly."

"Grey?"

"No, same colour."

"Yes! I told James my hair would stay long forever but he said it wouldn't! Oh I love being right." Hermione giggled. "So, what am I like with you? Do I like you? As in do I get on with you or do you hate me?"

"No you're alright, I don't speak to you that often but when I do we talk about usual stuff like school and music, and one time you told me to-" She suddenly realised that for Sirius to have met her now in this time, and again in her time, he would obviously have recognised her and known who she was from the moment he met her, but obviously she would have been completely unaware of everything. _Oh God I feel so embarrassed…_She'd never be able to look the future Sirius in the eye ever again. She was going to have to talk to him once she got back, if she could face him. However, it explained why as soon as she saw Sirius she knew he was completely innocent, even though Harry and Ron thought otherwise. Something just made her think that he hadn't done anything wrong, and that probably explained why she had a tiny little crush on him too. She felt herself flush.

"Told you what?"

She was brought back into the dormitory and away from her thoughts. "Oh nothing, you just told me not to go out with this boy I fancied because you thought he wasn't right for me or something like that."

"Did I really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow. That doesn't sound like me at all." He grinned.

Just as Hermione was beginning to enjoy herself talking to Sirius, the door was quietly opened, and a harassed, thin-looking figure came through the door, the figure of Remus Lupin. Suddenly the whole atmosphere became tense and serious, and Remus looked from Sirius to Hermione and then from Hermione back to Sirius.

"How did she get in here?" He said. "No girls are allowed in the boys' dorms. It's against the rules. I can give you detention for that."

Sirius flushed with anger and stood up. "Hey don't you start lecturing me about rules in a situation like this! I can't believe you! Yeah I'm glad you're back and all that and hope you're feeling better." He noticed that Remus looked like he was going to collapse any second. "But before you start going off on one, I'd like you to just walk over to the bed there and take a good long look at Hermione. You'll see what I mean when you get there."

Remus looked at Sirius with a confusion and walked to where Hermione was sitting.

"Lift up the torn piece of shirt on her shoulder."

He did so, and discovered what it was that was making Sirius act strangely. What is was that made Hermione slightly shiver. There was a rather large bite-mark on her shoulder, bruised and slightly bloody, and he recognised those teeth marks as his own.

"No…but it can't have been. How could I?... It wasn't!" He looked at Sirius for any hint of reassurance; any hint that the inevitable conclusion wasn't what he thought it was, and as he expected found none.

No-one spoke for a while, they waited to allow Remus time for the news to sink in. Eventually it was Sirius who broke the silence.

"I've sent James to get some bandages and some food. Look Remus, I'm sorry for getting snappy with you before" He cringed at his foolish choice of words "It wasn't your fault ok?"

"How can you say that? Of course it's my fault!"

"If anything it's my fault! I shouldn't have been out with her and forgetting it was a full moon. I mean how could I have ever done that? I'm a Marauder! And I forget it's a full moon!"

"No! Be quiet both of you!" They were both slightly taken aback at Hermione's sharpness. She hadn't spoken at all since Remus had arrived. "It's my fault. Sirius you know it is. I shouldn't have even come here in the first place. If only I'd left as soon as I knew the time-turner was working again."

"What is she talking about?" Remus said.

"I think we need to explain everything to Remus before we carry on blaming each other." So they did. Sirius and Hermione told Remus of everything that happened.

After a while Remus spoke. "Of course. That explains everything really. Why she has no records in the school. Well me being a prefect I naturally went to the room where all the records are kept to see if there was anything interesting recorded about Hermione's past, and I didn't find anything. That obviously puzzled me. I was going to go and speak to Dumbledore about it but didn't get round to doing so."

"Thank God you didn't! That would have made everything a whole lot worse. We don't want to get teachers involved at all. Awful things would happen if they knew I was here."

"Hermione I- I'm really sorry - I feel absolutely awful. I mean.. it almost feels like I've murdered someone. In a sense I have. I've taken away what makes you whole and replaced it with something evil."

"Don't talk like that Remus it's not your fault." Hermione said.

"Look lets not get into this again! We need to figure out what we're going to do." Sirius interjected.

Remus sat down and tried to regain his composure. It was obvious he felt mortified at what had happened. Hermione couldn't help but feel sorry for him at this moment, how he must be feeling…she didn't want to know. Her wound on her arm was starting to hurt again.

"Here, let me have a look at that." Remus rose and went to examine Hermione's wound properly. "Luckily it isn't that deep a wound at all, should heal completely within a couple of weeks and leave only a faint scar..." His words seem to trail.

"But what will happen to me Remus? Will I become a-, you know, a werewolf?"

"It is most likely yes." These words seemed to hurt him as he spoke. Hermione knew however that back in the future, her symptoms would be greatly minimised with the invention of the Wolfsbane potion that the future-Remus took. She was so relieved at this thought that she let out a sigh. Although it would be very hard to come by, she imagined the future-Remus would be understanding and would be able to persuade Snape to make more of the potion so she could have her own batch.

"Why do I feel like this is all my fault?" Sirius slumped into a nearby chair and buried his face in his hands. There was a pause and he spoke again, "We need to try and get your time-thingy fixed. I know it worked before but I think we just need to make sure."

They were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and closing. The body of James Potter materialised into the room as he took off his cloak.

"Hey guys. Got the house elves to make us up something nice, they said it would be here soon. Oh, I've got some fresh bandages and some Blood-Replenishing potion just in case you need it Hermione."

"Thanks James. But where did you get that from?"

"Old Sluggy's potions cupboard! Easy to get into if you have the cloak! Remus doesn't like me stealing potions but I think this time he won't mind too much would you Moony?"

"Well I suppose this time is an exception." Lupin still looked troubled.

Hermione picked up the bottle and examined it. "You need to take that blood-replenishing one every hour until it runs out I think, just in case you've lost any blood which-" He glanced sympathetically at Remus, "-I think you might have done."

Sirius took the bandages and a wave of understanding passed between him and James. James responded, "Well come on Moony we should go to the common room for a bit while Sirius helps Hermione with those bandages." They both rose and walked to the door. "Give us a shout when the food gets here will you Padfoot?" He smiled and Sirius nodded. They left the room and were gone.

He turned to Hermione and began to pull back the part of her shirt that was torn. It was covered in dried blood. He said "I think you might need a new shirt. You can wear one of mine but I think it'll probably be too big." He jumped off the bed and pulled out a trunk from underneath. "Oh no here we are. You can have one of my shirts from third year. That will probably fit you-erm." He flushed and gave Hermione an embarrassed look. "You're going to have to take your shirt off so I can clean up your wound. I won't look, I promise."

"Oh, right I – er - ok. Of course."

"This should clean up the blood. _Tergeo!_" He flicked his wand and instantly the blood on her shoulder was gone, leaving a large cut across her arm. He picked up a bandage and wrapped it across her shoulder.  
"Because this was done by, well, dark magic I guess you could call it, it can't be healed by magical means. I can clean up the blood but that's about it. You're going to have to keep changing the bandages every day until it heals."

"Thank you Sirius." She kissed him on the cheek.

"It's alright." He said quietly. He handed her his old shirt and she put it on. It was a little baggy for her liking but it was comfortable. She was about to lie down when the silence around them was broken by a loud _'pop', _and five silver trays materialised into the dormitory. They were laden with delicious-looking food. There was beef, roast potatoes, chicken, soup, stew, and a bowl full of freshly-baked bread.

"Ah, the favours you get in return for saving the life of a Hogwarts house-elf."

Hermione looked at Sirius inquisitively for a moment but that story would have to wait. James seemed to have sensed the food arriving and he burst through the door with Remus closely behind him.

"Come on Hermione, I'm guessing you must be hungry!"

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	8. Nor Have I Yet Outrun The Sun

Thanks so much for the positive reviews everyone! I had about a million emails in my inbox telling me that all these people had added my story to their favourites list, their alert list and that's great! Once again thank you so much.  
I too love Sirius in this fic I have to say! He's lovely!

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Hermione awoke early the next morning. It took her a few moments to remember where she was and how she got there. The couch she was lying on was old and dusty, and as she rolled over she soon discovered it was thin and narrow, and she landed with a thud on the hard wooden floor below.

The Shrieking Shack did not look as dilapidated and decayed as it was when she was last there. You could tell that it had not been inhabited for quite some time but there was much less rot, damp, and dust than there was when they first met Sirius Black a few years ago.

_Sirius Black…_She could repeat his name all day to herself if she wanted to.It seemed a lot more beautiful to her now. Such an admirable and alluring name that was well worthy of the person whom it belonged to.  
She got up and began to get dressed. They had decided the previous night that it would be better if she stayed out of Hogwarts castle to avoid detection. It was dangerous, they decided; if anyone else but James, Sirius, and Lupin knew she was here. Of course other people had seen her, but luckily she had blended in well and was undiscovered so far. The Shrieking Shack had been the best idea. Nobody else knew of its' whereabouts except for the Marauders and even those who did were too afraid to go anywhere near it.

As she was getting ready she noticed her reflection in an old dusty mirror on the other side of the room. She walked over to it and blew some of the dust away. She studied her reflection for a moment and thought she looked terrible. Her face was very pale and her eyes bloodshot. Her eyes darted to the bandage on her shoulder. It still hadn't sunk in that she was now a werewolf. _What am I supposed to tell the others when I go back?_  
She pulled the time-turner out of her pocket and examined it. It didn't look broken, but she thought it must be to have brought her here without telling it to. _Without telling it to._ She thought of all the things the time-turner had done for her in the past. All of them seemed to involve Sirius. The first time was when her and Harry used it to rescue Sirius and Buckbeak from a terrible fate. The second time was when she used it to bring Sirius back from beyond the veil in the Department of Mysteries. And the third was when she had been brought back here, and met his younger self and fell in love with him. _I love him. _She finally forced herself to admit it. Even if she could never be with him she loved him and there was nothing she could do about that. She looked outside the window to discover it was snowing quite heavily. She was still thinking of Sirius as she stared at the snow-covered landscape outside.

A sound of a door slamming downstairs startled her. She stuffed the time-turner back into her pocket, threw on her cloak and clutched her wand. She could hear the person's footsteps slowly ascend the stairs and she waited anxiously as the door in front of her creaked open. Her anxiety faded as soon as it had come. A gloved hand opened the door to reveal a familiar figure standing there, with long dark brown hair tucked behind his ears and wearing a Gryffindor scarf. His hair and cloak was flecked with snow. "Lovely weather isn't it?"

"Oh Sirius." He enveloped her into a hug. "You scared me I didn't know who it was at first. I thought for a moment that it was Snape."

"Oh don't worry. Snivellus won't be back here for a while. Last time he came we made sure of that. But- how do you know about that? Ah. Something I told you in the future perhaps?"

"Yes. Something like that."

He smiled. "I thought maybe we should concentrate on fixing your time-turner thing today, so we can go back and fix you."

"What?" Hermione looked confused. "Fix me? But what do you mean?"

"Well I was thinking, you've got something there that can travel back in time right? So why not just go back to before that happened and sort of, stop it from happening?"

"But how am I supposed to do that?" She paused for a second. Maybe he was right. After all it had worked for when they saved Sirius. But she had never tried reversing something that had happened to herself before. The idea of it seemed just too dangerous. She shared this with Sirius and he was silent for a while, thinking.

"Well yeah but say we go back, and yeah I understand ourselves from the past mustn't see ourselves from the future, so that would make things difficult. But, hang on! What if we go back, and we stop Moony from attacking us. We could get to him before he gets to you, well, us in the past!"

She was thinking. It did seem like a good idea, but she couldn't help thinking that there was something wrong with this plan. For a start how were they supposed to stop Remus? And how would they know actually _where _they needed to go to stop him? Sirius seemed to have read her mind once again, because just as she thought that he pulled out an old piece of parchment from under his cloak and said "We can use this to find out where he is when we go back, it's like a map thing. We made it ourselves."

"Ah, the Marauders' Map." She took the old piece of parchment and lightly tapped it with her wand. To her amazement letters began to appear on the front of it.

_"Mr. Wormtail presents his compliments to Miss Granger, and states that he is quite jealous of Mr. Padfoot._

Mr. Moony agrees with Mr. Wormtail, and would like to add that Miss Granger is quite a catch.

Mr. Prongs would like to announce the fact that he thinks Miss Granger would be better off going out with a bloke like him.

Mr. Padfoot would like to say that he cares not that destiny will soon keep them apart, rather that he is simply blessed to have met someone as captivating as Miss Granger."

"I-, I think I should keep hold of that for now." Sirius hastily grabbed the Map from Hermione's hands. A look of worry passed across his face, as though he was embarrassed that Hermione had just read that. "Stupid thing. I hate it when it does that."

Hermione decided that pretending it never happened was the best option for the time being, even though her insides felt like they had just tripped and fell down a flight of stairs. When Sirius took the Map from her her hands were trembling slightly.

"Does it do that often?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"No not really, only when either the person who is holding the map is trying to find out its secrets, or that they share a deep emotional connection with one of the mapmakers. I-it's how the charm works you see."

"Shall we get back to mending the time-turner?" Sirius seemed slightly taken aback at her abrupt change of subject, but he noticed that an unhappy glaze had just appeared in her expression.

"Er- sure. Can I have a look at it?" She removed the time-turner from her pocket and handed it to Sirius. He turned it over in his hands for a few moments, and lightly turned the dials with his fingers.

"The thing is. I've never understood this but in my time, a few years ago the Ministry's entire collection of time-turners was destroyed in an accident, and the rest of them were destroyed by hand because it was decided they would be too dangerous if they got into the wrong hands. I was ordered to return mine to Professor Dumbledore but shortly afterwards he gave it back to me, saying that the Ministry said it was already broken."

"Already broken?" Sirius repeated.

"We both agreed that there must have been some kind of mistake, because it seemed to be in perfect working order."

"But why did you end up here?"

"Because, it seemed, it had broken."

"So the Ministry mustn't have got it wrong then?"

"I can't understand it though." She threw her hands up in frustration. "There is nothing physically wrong with it. Look." She took the time-turner from Sirius and held it out in her hand, as if to demonstrate that there was no damage."

"What do those letters mean?" He pointed to the wording around the edges of each dial.

"I'm not sure really. I have to admit I've never seen them on any other Ministry time-turner." She read them aloud.

"_I mark the hours every one,  
nor have I yet outrun the sun,  
My use & value unto you,  
are gauged by what you have to do."_

"It sounds like a riddle. _Nor have I yet outrun the sun?_ What the hell does that mean?" said Sirius.

"Well I assume it can mean a number of things really-"

"_My use and value unto you are gauged by what you have to do._ Well that's it then."

"What is?"

"It's a special time-turner."

"A what? What do you mean a 'special time-turner'?"

"It's simple. It works in two ways really. Mainly it works the conventional way of turning these dial-y thingys I presume, this hourglass must be some sort of indicator as to when you want to go back to normally. But I think, and I mean I could be wrong, but I think that this time-turner has a special function. If the wearer wants it to go back to a specific time and subconsciously tells it to, then that like overrides the first thing, coz it acts more on the person's will. I reckon that's what that 'my use to you is determined by what you have to do' bit means. And I dunno, maybe the sun bit means that at a certain time of the day, say during night time, the second function always wins, 'cause that's how the magic must work, the sun can't be outrun by the second function; the subconscious-will one; during the day, so that one will always win in the night time."

He shrugged. Hermione meanwhile was sat there with a look of utter astonishment on her face.

"You all right Hermione? You look like you've just been confunded."

She gasped. "Sirius…How did you? How did you know that?"

"I didn't. I just made some kind of educated guess."

"I don't believe it! I- I think you may be right?"

"Really? Wow. See I ain't just a pretty face Hermione."

"I never said you were, Sirius."

They stayed in the Shrieking Shack for a short time longer, discussing what their plan would be for when they went back. They decided that they would travel to a high point in Hogsmeade, and wait for the last ray of the setting sun to hit the ground below them. Then they would use the time-turner to travel back to when Hermione was bitten, and intercept Remus before he got to their past-selves.

0000000000

_'He climbed back onto the Hippogriff… a free man. He would soon be hunted but she knew he would always be one step ahead. She was always right about him, in her heart, that was all that mattered.  
He finally looked down at her. This was the first time he had ever truly seen. All he did was smile and say "Farewell, the brightest witch of her age." He winked at her, and at that moment she realised everything that she had known already.'_

She woke up with a gasp. _"He knows! He's always known! He knows who I am!"_ She looked down at the limp figure lying next to her. His arm flung above his head in a somewhat elegant fashion.  
They must have both dozed off, she thought. Still feeling a little dazed she slowly walked to the window. The next sight would snap her to her senses; it was slowly getting dark.

"Sirius!" She nudged him violently. "We need to go now! It's time!"

He got up quickly and fumbled around for his shoes. He hastily put them back on and they both moved for the door. Once outside however, they stopped in their tracks. They had been asleep for too long. By the time it would take them to get to Hogsmeade, it would already be dark. Sirius also realised this it seemed, for his mouth was slightly open and his brow furrowed.

"I've messed it up again!" Hermione clutched at her hair, making it bushier than it already was.

There was a long pause until Sirius finally said, "You know, I do know of a way we can get there, quite quickly in fact."

"What?"

She had no time to hear his answer, for as she had finished speaking he had lunged towards her. Momentarily frightened, she instinctively threw her arms in front of her face and cowered. He grabbed her wrist and all of a sudden she felt like she was falling. It was as though her body was being forced through a tiny hole that she could not see. The pain of it seemed to last forever, but as soon as it began it was over, and she could feel solid earth beneath her feet. She gasped a great lungful of air.

"Oh Sirius," He could hear her despair in her voice. "..illegal animagus _and _illegal apparator? Is there anything else that you do illegally!"

"I can think of a few things-"

"Sirius!" She glared. "How can you do that at your age?"

"Oh well you see I'm very good." He grinned. "No seriously, me and James thought it would be fun if we could do it. So we practiced all the time until we could do it."

"But that's dangerous! Without proper training you could have left your arm behind or split yourself in two!"

"I know! It was really funny when James did it the first time. Left all his clothes behind and apparated in front of about 6 Ravenclaw girls. I couldn't move for laughing!"

She gave him a stern look. But she could not deny that she was slightly impressed of his ability to apparate at the age of sixteen. He coughed. "Well yes I can sort of see why it would be a bit dangerous yeah. But hey it worked and we got here in one piece!"

She looked around and noticed they were at the bottom of a small group of hills. They both looked up and saw they were at the foot of a particularly tall one.

"That one looks perfect. If we get to the top of that one in time we can see the whole valley from there, and we would easily be able to tell when the last few rays of sunset hit the ground."

"Let's go then!"

She grabbed his hand and they ran as fast as they could, their cloaks billowing in the wind behind them. She noticed he held her hand tightly and she clutched at his in return.

They got to the top just as the sun was finally setting. Hermione wasted no time in pulling the time turner out of her pocket and throwing the chain around their necks. She twisted the dials to 5 days ago and said "It's now Sirius, it's time. We need to concentrate on when we have to go back. 5 days before now? Ok?" He nodded. "Ok then let's go."

For some reason Sirius felt slightly scared, even though he had done this before. He was more scared this time however because the thought of the task ahead was daunting. He grabbed Hermione's free hand as the dials on the time-turner began to spin.

"Oh no." He said, "I forgot. I hated this when we did it last time."

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	9. Struit Insidias Lacrimis Cum Femina Plor

Disclaimer – I don't own any of this world; although we all wish we owned Sirius…

Love the reviews guys. You are all officially the best people in the whole world. I've decided to finally tie up this fic once and for all! Apologies for not updating in like 6 months! I was being very busy with university work and having practically a full time job at the same time!

But enough about that, on with the story!

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She stood there in the darkness; the rain pounding against her body, soaking her clothes and her hair. She should have felt elated at this moment, but instead the only feeling she could muster was one of a general emptiness.

She walked towards the top of a grassy hill, ignoring the mud that began to cover her shoes. When she reached the top she raised her hand to her face and did her best to wipe away the water from it, she didn't want to look a mess in this final moment.

A feeling of numbness seemed to grip her, and she shivered slightly when she finally noticed the cold.

She turned and faced the figure in front of her; the one that had walked alongside her, hand-in-hand up the slippery slope. His steady hand reached out and touched her arm, attempting to provide some sort of reassurance.

"I'm surprised at how easy that was, you know." He smiled. "I think it was quite an ingenious plan. Hide you in my dorm, then go and find Remus, become Padfoot, then go into the Shack with him and feast on all the raw meat that we'd put there from our previous visit to the kitchens, and then run around in the woods for a few hours. Result, you don't get bitten because he was never there in the first place to bite you. But honestly Hermione love, if I ever get found out that I stole all that meat, I'm going to be in so much trouble." He studied her for a while and laughed. But his laughter seemed to be devoid of any real amusement.

She could barely see him. She had so much water in her eyes she wasn't sure if it was rain or tears. She concluded that it was probably a mix of both, and she was glad that the rain was there to disguise the feeling that she was so desperately trying to suppress.

"Yeah. It was quite clever.." Her words trailed. He stepped towards her and slowly moved his right arm towards her shirt. He pulled it slightly at the top to uncover her shoulder. She shuddered at his touch, but was once again thankful for the current weather situation to disguise it.

"No scar." He said in amazement.

She lifted his hand from her shoulder and held it for a while. She took his other hand and held them out in front of her, turning them over and stroking them softly.

"Your hands look so young." She wondered what these hands would look like the next time she would see them. How they would feel after fourteen years, weathered by the forces of time and scarred by a life of torture, misery and loneliness. She let go of his hands slowly and he let them drop loosely to his sides.

She stood there in silence waiting for him to say the next words.

"Well, then I guess this is it then." He managed a smile.

She wondered what he was feeling at this time. She knew he liked her, he hadn't really mentioned it properly, well, he had but he always tried to dodge the subject. She wondered about the girlfriends he would have after she left. She wondered how many there would be in the next five years that he would have left before he got locked up for a crime he didn't commit.

She thought about this for a while, and then decided that at this moment, it didn't really matter.

"Yeah I suppose it is."

Another pause, another awkward silence interspersed with the rain lashing on the ground around them. Her body seemed to have taken on a life of its own. She was almost unaware that her hand was now reaching into her bag and taking out the time turner. She undid the catch and fitted it around her neck, but all of this she did with a sense of unwanted inevitability.

Suddenly they both became overwhelmed with a sense of urgency. The half-hearted smile that had been painted on Sirius's face was wiped. It was as if he realised that is was in fact now or never.

He grabbed her and enveloped her into a passionate embrace. He held her tightly to him and her sense of shock was mixed with a sense of longing as she buried her head into his shoulder. She couldn't hold it in any longer, she could feel the tears begin to flow, her emotions flooding through her body as she sobbed almost uncontrollably. She lifted her head and looked at him. He put his hand behind her neck, tilted her head and kissed her.

The overflow of feelings within her made her feel like she was about the collapse, and she was glad of his reassuring arm around her, acting as though it was keeping her upright. She did not want this moment to ever end. Realising a need to preserve it, she concentrated carefully on the way he kissed, how his lips felt on hers, how his hands caressed her head and body; so she could replay this moment again and again. She cursed herself for her bad sense of timing, wishing she had simply attacked him in this way much earlier, so that the inevitable pleasure she felt would not be overcome by such regretful emotions.

It was only once it was over that she realised how utterly drenched she was from the weather. Her shirt was now practically see-through, but much to both her pleasure and sadness, so was his.

"You know, you're alright kid." The characteristic Sirius Black humour never left him. He gave an ironic laugh. "I won't forget you, you know."

"I know." She forced a smile.

Shaky fingers began to twist the dials on her time-turner. It was difficult for her to see what she was doing through clouded eyes and stifled sobs.

"Goodbye."

She looked up at him and then began to watch him slowly fade out of view; the ground beneath her feet dissipating. She felt herself being momentarily flung out of the air and back down again. She watched the ground beneath her come to resemble something more familiar. It stopped. And it was still raining.

-o-

Hermione returned quickly to her dorm. She checked the time and date. She'd got it almost perfect, only one hour out. Harry and Ron would be getting back soon wondering why she'd missed her lesson. She decided to tell them she suddenly became ill. _How fitting_, she thought.

She tidied herself up, allowing a few moments to compose herself; ready to pretend that she was feeling ill and that was all that was wrong with her. She solemnly made her way to the Gryffindor common room; where, to her surprise Harry, Ron, as well as Ginny and the Weasley twins were waiting for her.

"Hermione! What happened? You missed Potions… Potions! Snape was so mad. He's given you triple, not double, _triple_ homework to do. Plus he told us to tell you that straight after the Christmas holidays he wants to see you every night for a month for detention. You must have had some bloody good reason for missing Potions." Ron snorted.

"I didn't feel well, Ron." Hermione tried her best at composure, almost succeeded, when she remembered something in Ron's humoured outburst that made her brow furrow. There was a long pause, "Christmas?" She uttered.

Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks. "Yeah." Harry glanced at her furtively. "Have you got all your stuff ready? Carriages leave in an hour. We're gonna be meeting Arthur Weasley and Moody at the station..."

Hermione paused for a brief moment, then nodded, letting some tension release from her. "Ah."

"… who are then going to take us to Grimmauld Place for dinner."

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I apologise for the shortness of this chapter, but it is a very fitting place for it to end. Reviews greatly appreciated.

FYI: in case you were wondering, the translation of the latin title is 'When a woman weeps, she sets a trap with her tears.'


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